As they approached, ten more stepped out of the water. Ragna figured that he could also try on some brute beasts as well as humans. If it worked, then the army they could create would be unstoppable. As the scouts approached, they faced about 20 shark-men youma, and they all looked like they had a nasty disposition. Tom shouted, "Mako: they're mako sharks! That makes them quite vicious!"

Sailor Moon, at that point, really did not care about how vicious the monster she faced was. As far as she was concerned, they were /all equally/vicious! She did not waste time. She pulled off her tiara, and figured that she could cause them to be distracted while the others moved in. "MOON TIARA BOOMERANG," was heard over the beach, and the fleeing crowds saw who was acting. Fear now turned to joy now that the sailor scouts were there. The tiara flew through the shark-men, stunning some, cutting others, and it returned dutifully to her hand. As the others were moving in, she spotted Ragna in the back. Of course, she did not know who he was, but she had at least enough on the ball to know that he had to have something to do with it. Having vanquished as many foes as they did had given her an education. She moved around to stand about 20 feet before her, and she said, "Using wildlife to scare these people whose only crime was that they wanted to relax after ahard week. That is inexcusable! I the guardian of love and justice, the pretty soldier in the sailor suit of command-Sailor Moon! In the name of the moon, I shall punish you!"

Ragna smiled and said, "Ah, thank you for confirming what my master suspected! You've been quite helpful. Have fun with my 'little' friends!"

He used a force push to throw sand in her face and knock her down. When she had regained herself, he was gone, and there was no knowing where he had gone. She came more to herself, and realized that her friends needed her. She was on her feet in a flash and into the fray.

The odds still stood in the scouts' favor in that, though outnumbered nearly two to one, they still had their abilities on their side. When they sprinted through the youmas, they managed to split them up, and gain the attention of the creatures to each one of them separately. Saturn had two on her, but she locked her stern eyes on them, spun her weapon around, and whispered, "Silent wall!"

The wall of energy hit them hard, and they vaporized on the spot. Neptune and Uranus stood together, and prepared their attack. Four of the creatures moved on them, and Neptune kept them busy when she let loose with her deep submerge attack. Grant you, because it was a water based attack, it would not have much of an effect on the youmas. However, the intent was only to stop them long enough for Uranus to shout, "EARTH SHAKING!"

The golden and red ringed energy ball skipped off the sand, knocking the creatures off balance, and then it flew into them. They exploded into shards of light and then dissipated. Chibi Moon had one on her, and she now had the chance to display the new attack that she had received before arriving. She shouted, "LUNAR CANDY ATTACK!"

When she did, out of the scepter, (that looked like Usagi's,) came a cone of light filled with colored balls the size of gumballs. They exploded all around the creature, making it squeal in pain. As that was happening, Tom was confronting the one before him, letting loose with his tsunami attack. It started to vaporize the creature, just as it was falling back into the one Chibi Moon was tending to, and they both vanished. Jupiter and Mercury were standing together as four charged them. Mercury shouted, "ABSOLUTE ZERO!" and instantly the four froze into position. At that, Jupiter, knowing it would now not take that much, just used her supreme thunder attack, and they shattered as if they had been made of glass. Mars also knew that her new attack may have been overkill, so she just let lose with youma tisan, and they suddenly had shark steak. All Pluto had to do was let go with her dead scream attack, and it was powerful enough to eradicate ten of these creatures had the need been there. Venus and Sailor Moon found themselves confronting the last four in close quarters combat, and they were spending time dodging and striking the creatures. However, the fight began to lead them into the water, and they soon found themselves thigh deep in the water. This was where they did not want to be, because the creatures would have the edge. Indeed, this had been their intent after watching their comrades being defeated in order on the beach. They dove under, and the girls wanted to panic. However, Saturn had spotted the trap, and she planted her glaive into the ground. She shouted, "Venus, use your chain!"

She shouted, "VENUS LOVE ME CHAIN!" and then flung it to the glaive while grabbing Sailor Moon. She then retracted the chain and used that to yank them out of the water, just as the creatures leapt up to try and bite, and maybe, devour them. Once the got to the shore, the four were in pursuit. However, Venus let loose with "SHOCKING CHAIN," and wrapped it around them like a whip. They all screamed, and Sailor Moon let loose with "DEEP UMBRA CLEANSING!"

A ball of light quickly spread around them, and vanished with a bang. In the youmas' place were now four mako sharks flopping their way back into deeper water. They all celebrated their victories, and were glad to give their new strength a test. Everyone was now screaming, and gathering around the scouts as if they were rock stars. However, over this was heard, "Bravo! That was very, very impressive!"

Everyone became silent as Ragna approached. He looked like a man who was some kind of a misplaced Viking who forgot where the opera house was. He stood there in the stereotypical Viking outfit, complete with a blonde, shaggy beard. "I see that I shall now have to ramp things up. Yet, don't think this is over. We are going to finish the work that Beryl was too incompetent to finish! However, I am just itching to find out if you have what it takes against me!"

He started to approach, but Pluto said, "Pull your cutlasses-you too Chibi Moon!"

They did, and she said, "Put the tips together with the scepter."

As soon as they did, a large ball of energy began to form at the scepter tip of Sailor Moon. With that, they all had the instinctive urge to call out, and they let loose with, "LUNAR SHOCK CANNON!"

It turned into a beam about the size of a 16 inch deck gun shell and hit Ragna in the chest. He screamed in great pain and flew down the beach for a quarter mile as the beam pushed him, leaving a large wake in the sand. They were surprised when he gained his feet, although not with a lot of strength. He then spun his cloak around and disappeared in a black mist. Pluto said, "Well, he must be quite powerful to have withstood that."

Mercury was looking through her visor, and said, "Not from what I saw. In telescopic view, there was indeed a 16 inch hole on his shirt and a 3rddegree burn on that spot. He won't be coming back for a while!"

"Still," said Pluto, "Normally, no one gets up from that. That attack has the ability to blast a hole through about a half meter of steel. It makes me wonder. Scouts, let's head back to the shrine, because there is much to discuss."

Back in Australia, Ragna appeared in the Negaverse lair that Sark had established. When Sark saw him, he was shocked to see his condition. "Must...find...herbs," sputtered Ragna, "Scouts...are...powerful."

"So, they were sailor scouts!" uttered Sark, now more interested in that than the injuries Ragna had sustained. Ragna, once he had found the proper ointments, stripped off what was left of his top and started to apply the salve. He screamed in pain as he did, but soon it was soothing the spots where he had placed it. "They were much more powerful than you told me," sputtered Ragna between his groans and winces of pain.

"What do you mean?" asked Sark, "They're the Sailor Scouts. They cannot be that powerful!"

"Milord!"exclaimed Ragna, "I sent 20 youma after them, and they all had them defeated in short order! They had enough trouble with two before. I thought that would have done the trick!"

"This cannot be!" thundered Sark, "I never remembered them that powerful! You must be wrong!"

Ragna was getting fed up, but remembered his position and said, "With all due respect, milord, can something weak do this?" and he pointed to his sore and wounded chest. Sark then asked him how they had done it. Ragna then said,"They all pulled out cutlasses and combined them with the scepter the one dressed like a commander held. They then..."

Sark cut in and asked, "What did this scepter look like?"

Ragna looked at him oddly, wondering what this had to do with anything. Sark then insisted, "This is vital-what did it look like?"

"It had a handle about 20 centimeters long, with what looked like a crystal crescent moon on the top."

"No!" uttered Sark, almost in a whisper, "She could not have lived!"

"Who could not have lived, milord?"

"She should have been destroyed with the others!"

"I don't understand!"

"Tell me, what colors did the others wear?"

Ragna proceeded to describe the color schemes on the uniforms, and then told of the one that was wearing the colonial outfit. Now Sark had a stern look on his face as he asked, "Tell me, and were there two cats with them?"

"Yes, milord," answered Ragna, "One purple and one white."

"Luna and Artemis," said Sark, "The royal family's cats, and the confidants of the queen."

"I don't understand."

"THINK, MAN! Who were the only ones left at the final battle, when we had to go underground?"

"Yes, I know, and I understand what you are saying. Yet, who was the one with the long tresses of hair..."

"That cinches it! That was Princess Serenity and the Sailor Scouts! Somehow, they all managed to survive it when Queen Serenity used...how shall we say...the nuclear option. They must have been put into a stasis before it happened as we, and they all have awakened. This is going to make things difficult. However, how did they become so powerful?"

"Milord, I wish I could tell you, because, if they do that again, I may not live to discover the answer."

"They must have been perfecting their arts since that time. This means we have to stop them before they grow more powerful, or else we are dead in the water!"

Sark began to pace the floor. He quit trying to figure out how they were still alive, and decided to focus on the matter at hand-stopping them before they put a fly into the ointment.

Once back at the shrine, Mamoru had joined them, and he could see that they were all tired. "So, was training that vigorous today?" he asked.

"You don't know the half of it!" uttered Tom.

"We met a new foe today," said Usagi, "although we don't know much about him."

"It is obvious that he has been the one behind the recent attacks," stated Ami,"but I think we left him with a sting that he shall not soon forget."

"Yeah, that was one awesome strike!" said Tom, "My memory has not come back entirely, but I do not ever remember an attack like that!"

"That is because you never had that," said Setsuna, being the only one who had not been rendered unconscious, "All these attacks were the result of wanting to be sure that noting like what happened in the past ever happened again."

"The way it hit, you could call that the Bismarck attack!" said Tom.

"The Bismarck?" asked Minako.

"She was probably the fastest, most powerful battleship that ever sailed,"answered Tom, "probably second only to the Yamoto. She had 18 inch deck guns that were the scourge and fear of the ocean."

"That sounds like a good name for it," said Makoto.

"In any case," interjected Rei, "We have to find out what is going on. What do we know?"

Ami put some thought to it, and said, "We know that he can produce youma, we also know he can make them out of any living creature. They are more powerful than anything we have faced before, and I am now glad we received these new tools. They sure came in handy."

"Oh, speaking of new tools," said Bunny, "I brought this with me. You have this in the future, but mother thought you might need it right now."

She then pulled out a laptop that was colored the same blue as the skirt she wore as Mercury. "All members of your branch have these. It looks like a laptop that you would see today, but it has the strength of a mega server. It was anew one, so I had it filled with all the medical journals that you would need; several different encyclopedias, full web access, as well as the ability to tap into the records of Interpol, the FBI, all the secret service computers all over the world without detection, and full internet wi-fi access. It also has all your favorite songs, and plays in full surround sound."

Ami was impressed, "You put all that in here?"

"And, there is room for much more, as many programs as you think you would need to aid the team," added Bunny.

"Well then," said Haruka, "Start stuffing data into that thing and see if there is anything that would tell us what is going on."

"It's not as simple as that," said Hotaru, "I don't think that there is anything in there that would connect with the past."

"Actually," interrupted Bunny, "One thing it does have is the entire archival history of the Old Moon Kingdom. In the 30th century, we have bases on the moon, and my mother made a point of trying to find anything like that. They were fortunate enough to find it, and then put it into the mother system. Let's see what we find."

Ami then punched in the following to the search drive: youma, Viking, Queen Beryl. These were the only clues that he had given. As the computer was chewing on this, Tom then had to know. He asked Bunny, "Just how far into the future are we talking?"

"I come from the 30th century," Bunny said frankly.

Tom's jaw proverbially hit the floor. "Wait," Tom exclaimed, "How is it that we are all alive in that time?"

Setsuna then said, "Well, if I was to tell you, it may make negative changes. Let us just say that there will come a point in the future when you will have to battle a foe that will force me to seal the solar system into a stasis until the damage the fight caused heals itself. It will be the 30thcentury by that point, and your heroism, with the others, will cause everyone to revere your rulership over the system, and later, a section of the galaxy."

"I hope what we are fighting now is not what makes it happen," said Minako, all worried.

"I can say safely that this is not it, so do not fear," responded Setsuna,"Just know that, when the time comes, I shall not fail to do my part."

The mood became somber that there would come a moment in the future that would be catastrophic enough to put the Earth into a stasis. However, Michiru then said, "Please, let's not dwell on such negative things. When it happens, it happens, and we should not put thought to it. Just know that there will come abetter world out of it, so do not be sad."

Before things could get more somber, Ami said, "I have some results!"

Everyone then gathered around her to see the result. "According to this," she said, "There was a commander underneath Beryl that had the same clothes. There is not much else said about him, but it does say that there were five others that had his abilities, and that they were powerful. However, their leader, who lived under a shroud of mystery, was not known to be too fond of Queen Beryl. He only aided her for chances to one day usurp her as the ruler of the universe. He figured her too incompetent, and he was waiting for the right chance to take power. The record ends there, as it shows a date close to the time of Queen Beryl's War. I guess there was no chance to archive that time."

"So, that's all we have?" asked Mamoru.

"It does say here," continued Ami, "that this stranger was obsessive, and had delusions of grandeur. He expected people to worship him like a god. He has avision of trying to reshape all creatures into what he considers the ideal."

Tom became disgusted. "I wonder how much what he said sounded like Mein /Kamf/?"he spit out.

Some caught the connotation, but Usagi said, "What is...what he said?"

Mamoru jumped in and said, "That was the book that Adolph Hitler wrote to explain his dream of a master race that he would lead and would conquer the world. He preached something called eugenics and killing all undesirables."

"What's'eugenics?'" asked Minako.

"You know what artificial selection is, right," said Ami, "We studied that last year in biology."

"Oh yeah," remembered Minako, "So, are you saying that is what he was trying with people?"

"That's about the size of it," said Tom, "and he gives my bloodline a bad name."

Setsuna looked at him and said, "You must have had some people tease you over that as well."

"You can say that again!" snapped Tom, "Not only am I German by heritage, but Iwould have looked just like the racial ideal that Hitler preached. Believe me; I want no connection with that madman whatsoever! Because of that, I now have more incentive to stomp this...whoever he is...into a mud hole!"

"Someone like that can't do much without power," said Makoto.

"But if he were to emerge and gain some political strength...?" said Tom, letting the question dangle in the air. Everyone then began to get the idea, and Mamoru then said, "That means we have to keep an eye on politics. We watch for someone preaching this kind of rhetoric connected with what we have faced, and we can go from there."